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ADELAIDE NATIONALS
01 Nov 2008 Filed in: Downhill/Gravity Enduro/Dirt Jumps
ADELAIDE NATIONALS
Photo thanks to Angus Meek.
The Adelaide Nationals Round 1 has been raced and the dust has settled. Finally a dry nationals race! Although its a pain, I am thinking that I race better in the rain, so maybe I should pray for rain... This time I decided to not race the XC and focus on the DH. Last year it was easier to do both as I was living in Adelaide, but this year it was just too hard. The aim of the race was to get some confidence back and not break any bones! Last year at the Adelaide round I finished in 5th place in Elite Women. After a very very busy weekend visiting friends, family, practising the track, going to a wedding on Saturday night and then racing, I was exhausted. And that was before the race even began. The track had changed slightly since the year before, making it shorter and faster in sections. A few tricky sections had been removed and a couple of new interesting parts added. The start mound of the track had been made higher meaning you didn't have to pedal as much out of the gate. However after the first berm, there was a jump over 2 large rocks/boulders, into a tight corner. It was quite daunting. If you didn't get enough lift off the lip you would case your wheel into the rocks (hopefully not the front wheel...). I didn't do the jump on the Friday as my confidence was fairly limited. Saturday morning, I rolled into it a few times and finally turned my brain off to hit it. As is always the case with these things, it was easy when I finally did it. There was another new section where the track that cut through a loose rocky section and dropped into the old rock garden. This was hard to do fast, as there were often loose rocks over the track. I had a few moments there in practice, but wasn't too worried about that bit when it came race time. I also did the creek gap (dry water run off area with large rocks about 2m gap), that I hadn't done before so I was stoked. There is a large set of doubles at the bottom of the track that I didn't build up to, which cost me time, but I will hit those next time!
Me hitting (ok casing...) the creek gap.
It was nice to see that even though I have been off the bike for a while that I can still ride. A nice confidence boost. Although it would have been nice to go well in the results (I ended up 9th), I was happy with how I went. Hey, I didn't break any bones or anything on my bike, so that's got to be good! The next race is in 4 weeks at Illinbah in the Gold Coast Hinterland. Its a long track so my arms will struggle with their lack of strength. But hopefully I can work on that rapidly between now and then.
Saturday, 1 November 2008
Photo thanks to Angus Meek.
The Adelaide Nationals Round 1 has been raced and the dust has settled. Finally a dry nationals race! Although its a pain, I am thinking that I race better in the rain, so maybe I should pray for rain... This time I decided to not race the XC and focus on the DH. Last year it was easier to do both as I was living in Adelaide, but this year it was just too hard. The aim of the race was to get some confidence back and not break any bones! Last year at the Adelaide round I finished in 5th place in Elite Women. After a very very busy weekend visiting friends, family, practising the track, going to a wedding on Saturday night and then racing, I was exhausted. And that was before the race even began. The track had changed slightly since the year before, making it shorter and faster in sections. A few tricky sections had been removed and a couple of new interesting parts added. The start mound of the track had been made higher meaning you didn't have to pedal as much out of the gate. However after the first berm, there was a jump over 2 large rocks/boulders, into a tight corner. It was quite daunting. If you didn't get enough lift off the lip you would case your wheel into the rocks (hopefully not the front wheel...). I didn't do the jump on the Friday as my confidence was fairly limited. Saturday morning, I rolled into it a few times and finally turned my brain off to hit it. As is always the case with these things, it was easy when I finally did it. There was another new section where the track that cut through a loose rocky section and dropped into the old rock garden. This was hard to do fast, as there were often loose rocks over the track. I had a few moments there in practice, but wasn't too worried about that bit when it came race time. I also did the creek gap (dry water run off area with large rocks about 2m gap), that I hadn't done before so I was stoked. There is a large set of doubles at the bottom of the track that I didn't build up to, which cost me time, but I will hit those next time!
Me hitting (ok casing...) the creek gap.
It was nice to see that even though I have been off the bike for a while that I can still ride. A nice confidence boost. Although it would have been nice to go well in the results (I ended up 9th), I was happy with how I went. Hey, I didn't break any bones or anything on my bike, so that's got to be good! The next race is in 4 weeks at Illinbah in the Gold Coast Hinterland. Its a long track so my arms will struggle with their lack of strength. But hopefully I can work on that rapidly between now and then.
Saturday, 1 November 2008